Deadly Bug is Discovered
Health and safety executive hse inspectors will visit today to establish the extent of the infection. revenue bosses last night insisted no staff were at risk from legionnaires' disease. a spokesman said "we were doing routine tests on some chiller units and we found the levels of the bacteria were slightly higher than we water dispenser. "the units were immediately taken out of action and we informed the hse " the water supply is fine, there's no problem with that, but these chiller units have been taken out of action and they're going to be disinfected." but one woman working there said "a lot of people don't know if they should go into work tomorrow. when the messages in the kitchen went up we were calling up, asking why and told, `i'm not supposed to tell you, there's going to be an e-mail going round'. the bulk of staff had probably gone when they told us what it was. "a lot of people fill bottles and drink them at their desks through the day. they've been told to destroy the bottles. "there's a lot we don't know. how do you catch it? how do you pass it on? am i going to infect my children? there are a lot of very concerned people there, including the line managers. i wanted to pou water dispenser," she said. "just the office where i work is massive. we all think we shouldn't be there and the place should be closed. that would make chaos for the public." flexible working means many staff leave before 4pm, before the warning was issued. a newcastle city council spokesman said its environmental health section had been made aware of a problem with drinking water but hospitals had not had to deal with any cases of legionnaires' disease. a spokesman for the health protection agency, set up this year to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, said it had been informed. byline by graeme whitfield and bryn littleton thousands of staff at one of the north-east's biggest office complexes have been given health warnings after a deadly bug was found in drinking water. managers at the inland revenue in longbenton, ro water dispenser, had to shut down two water dispensers yesterday afternoon after higher-than-acceptable levels of legionella bacteria were discovered. the bacterium can cause the potentially fatal legionnaires' disease,